“For how long will I have to/ Bear the pain of development
Or is it that I will be done to death/ Before attaining development?”
Quote from a poem by Ram Dayal Munda titled “The Pain of Development (Vikas Ka Dard)”
https://joharjournal.org/ram-dayal-munda/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=4548
Armed with a crowbar, a sabre and a cotton bag, the group sets out at 5.30 a.m. from Vadanemmeli on East Coast Road. Taking the first bus to Mambakkam village on the Kelambakkam – Vandalur Road, the five-member team goes to a paddy field in the nearby Kolathur village. This is the daily routine of … Read more
Government documents apply various labels besides “Scheduled Tribes” and “tribals”: Hill Tribes, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, Forest Dwellers, Indigenous Communities, Aborigines, Backward Tribes, Backward Classes, Tribal Settlers, Original Settlers, Primitive Tribes, and Denotified Tribes. Many ‘Denotified Tribes’ continued to suffer displacement/dispossession/enslavement of Nomadic, Semi-Nomadic and Denotified Tribes after Independence. The exploitation and encroachment on tribal/forest … Read more
A visit to the Toda hamlet known as Taranadmund near Ooty makes it clear that for the Toda community, cultural heritage is part of everyday life and worship. The local economy continues to involve buffalo rearing. The breathtaking Nilgiris are home to a number of indigenous tribes, one of which is Toda. Unfortunately, the once … Read more
“It is wrong and does not help the tribal cause either to reduce the image of the Indian tribal society to that of destitute remnants, on the verge of dying out.” – Georg Pfeffer in Voices from the Periphery: Subalternity and Empowerment in India (Routledge India 2012) A rare collection of essays and different from most … Read more
Tagore’s alienation and the zamindari system [Rabindranath Tagore] conspicuously distanced himself from the middle class, or the bhadralok, although they constituted the head and front of his audience as an author. Tagore’s alienation from such people can be contrasted with his perception that among the rural peasantry there was a “touch of humanity”. Undeniably, Tagore was … Read more